When a user purchases a new wireless device, the user's wireless provider generally must activate the device before the user can use the device on the provider's network. There are several ways in which a wireless device can be activated. The wireless device may be preactivated prior to sale of the device to the user. Under a preactivation scheme, the device has installed therein a subscriber identity module (SIM) that is assigned an activated international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) before the device is sold. This technique, while technically feasible, has several downsides. First, because the IMSI is assigned and activated before the device is sold, there is enhanced risk of theft and other supply-chain “leakage.” Second, this technique requires substantial investment in allocating and activating IMSIs early in the supply chain, resulting in inefficiencies (for example, maintaining a relatively large stock of activated. IMSIs corresponding to devices that may not be sold or used for some time). Moreover, if the supply chain involves rebranding the devices, some of the allocated and activated IMSIs might never be used. Moreover, preactivation of a SIM generally requires the assignment of a Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number (MSISDN) to the SIM (by associating the MSISDN with the IMSI assigned to the SIM). Given that IMSIs (and, especially, MSISDNs) can be relatively scarce resources, this solution is less than optimal.
In some cases, the wireless device is activated at the point of sale. While this technique is suitable for applications in which the device is sold at a relatively sophisticated reseller or agent of the wireless provider, it is unavailable in many cases (including, for example, in the case of prepaid phones and/or other phones that are purchased at locations other than dedicated resellers).
Another option is to sell a wireless device in an unactivated state and require the user to activate the phone before using it. Typically, as the device is inoperable on the network until activation, the device itself cannot be used as the activation vehicle. Hence, the user will have to call the provider (using a different phone), visit the provider's website (using a separate computer or some other device), and/or the like. This option, while sometimes the only available option, is less than desirable because it can impose an inconvenience on the user, resulting in a competitive disadvantage for the provider in relation to techniques that do not impose this inconvenience on the user.
Moreover, existing techniques for activating wireless devices offer the user limited (if any) input into the phone number (e.g., MSISDN) that the device will be assigned.